Chapter 2

• Benedict Anderson: 'What do you think the importance of literature to our society?'
• Rizal's novels, Noli me tangere and El Filibusterismo, are considered the chief documents of Philippine literature and had a central role in the awakening of Filipino nationalism
• During the American colonial period (1889-1942), the local use of Spanish was wiped out, making Rizal's novels inaccessible in their original form
• Competition was made in the translation of Rizal's novels, and new translations were undertaken
• Hazards of Literature: DEMODERNIZATION - Rizal's bravura style is set in the recent past, with frequent glissando into the present, pushing the novels deep into the antique past
• Benedict Anderson: 'Do you believe that the novels reflected the issues during Rizal’s time?'
• Benedict Anderson: 'What about the case of Rizal’s two novels?'
• Literature

  • It transforms the society
  • An artistic way of understanding social realities
  • A synthesis of the past, present & future
  • A reflection of the order way of life
  • An avenue of the people to express their grievances & expose the wrong doings of the government
  • A reflection of the true character of the Filipinos
• Rizal wrote his works in Spanish
• English translations of Rizal's novels existed, and some foreigners undertook the translation
• Doreen Fernandez: '"the only translation{s} anybody reads now"'
• Giving a modern appearance to the works

  He pushes them further into the past
• An error in chronology; especially: a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs; a person or a thing that is chronologically out of place; especially: one from a former age that is incongruous in the present
• Rizal edited passages which made him uncomfortable; passages alluding to political/religious matters as well as swear words & reference to bodily functions
• Rizal’s bravura style is set in the recent time thus the dominant tense is past, there are frequent glissando into the present; thus the alterations not at all to update Rizal’s novels but rather to push it deep into the antique past
• Hazards of Literature

  • Demodernization
  • Exclusion of the reader
  • Bowdlerization
  • De-Europeanization
  • Anachronism
  • Delocalization
• Throughout the novel, Rizal regularly turns & speaks to the reader as if the author & reader were ghosts or angels, they penetrate invisibly
• Elimination of some European terms to naturalize them as possible and the effect is bizarre (strange, weird, unusual)
• Paraphrasing

  According to Guerrero, Rizal only paraphrased to adapt it to the language he used. Due to this, he removed some nuances because, he said, the young readers of the novels no longer know them.
• Remove from the proper or usual locality; to free or remove from the restrictions of locality; free of localism, provincialism, or the like: to delocalize a person's accent (changing the name of place; 80% of the name of places/roads were changed)